Monday, August 24, 2009

Another one bites the dust

Dear Colleague:

Jay Dee Bakery (98-92 Queens Blvd, Forest Hills) closed its doors after nearly 60 years. It stood as a well-known NY Art Deco landmark since the early 1950s (with features of an earlier bakery dating back to the early 1940s), and has been dear to locals and preservationists. Citywide, there are very few such surviving Art Deco style commercial buildings. On Aug 10th, my colleague and I met with the owner, and tried to convince him to preserve and adaptively reuse the property, making him eligible for grants, positive media, & awards. It will be transformed into a Russian restaurant, and the owner decided that he is not interested in preserving its historic Art Deco features.

The news is unfortunate, but the owner said he will give away any salvagable Art Deco features for free, if an individual, organization, or museum is interested. Rego-Forest Preservation Council is hoping that several features will live on elsewhere and showcased or creatively and adaptively reused, which has been done countrywide. We would be saddened if these unique businesses' Art Deco attributes are demolished forever.

The distinctive Art Deco and decorative features include the following (some are evidently more salvageable than others. Mosaics are salvageable):

Please contact unlockthevault@hotmail.com if you are interested in an opportunity to own rare Art Deco attributes for free from the last known Jay Dee Bakery, know of someone who may be interested, or would like to offer any suggestions. Please spread the word. Time is of the essence! Thank you!

19 comments:

Time for the genteel folk to move on and out because the new Russian/Bukharian FH will begin to resemble (all but FH Gardens proper) an under-civilized sheep herding village in the midst of the Ural Mountain range...with its new residents feigning urban sophistication and putting on airs with their newly acquired set of pseudo manners!

The Russkie/mobskie take over is about to reach its final conclusion.

Thanks C.M Katz for your complicity in the process! When are you selling your house?

The sacking of the historic Trylon Theater under the heels of Kasiev the plunderer was the portent of these things to come!

Why can't it be in the art deco style of the previous restaurant. The newbies expect us to respect their culture; why don't they respect ours? Would it be acceptable if I went to their country and tore down a neighborhood icon and turned it into a McDonald's?

Warning: I am going to get all weepy as I recount the many family memories related to Jay Dee. My dad would drive my little brother & I there to get something special , once in a blue moon. My grandmother-who lived in Cupsaw Lake N.J. would request certain items and we would bring them whenever we came to visit. Grandma Claire had her own great bakery but it could not come close to the bread and coffee cakes we brought her from J.D.As the neighborhood has indeed changed, J.D. changed too but it's facade was still there and it did remind my husband & I of those special times in both of our childhoods. We stopped by, now & again-out of nostalgia really. The cookies looked good but the taste we remembered was not there. We did save the twine for our cats to play with for hours on end-just as I had done as a kid. One last memory: both of my grandmother's had, in their kitchen kitchen "junk drawers" carefully tied up bunches of that red & white bakery twine. So J.D. goes far beyond food for me. As many might say-it was a member of our family. I hope someone takes all of the listed items and uses them to preserve our little neighborhood's history. If not, I would love some of the items. Just a few feet tall, we would stare at each detail, with great love. It all translated into yummy goodness...

I hope all that stuff gets saved and put to use. The Bukharian's won’t leave a trace of anything American and will smash anything left the second they get the key for victory and spite.

A good 9 out of 10 of these people (like the Iranian Jews in Great Neck)have no respect for our culture or anybody not their own. The aggression dished out by these people is only matched by their self-righteousness and will to force their way at any cost.2 good reasons why they been kicked out of every country on earth.

For the record I'm not a racist. I judge people by their actions and behavior. I say this all from first hand experience with these savages.

I just got off the phone with my parents. They are not a part of the computer world and I am their conduit of information via quick phone calls. This type of story brings with it a flood of related memories about our neighborhood and it usually takes all of us racking our combined memory banks to fill in the details of the decades lived here & the things come & gone. Our collective hearts break each time a for sale sign goes up. It is usually the case that a cherished home will be torn down and replaced and with it go our family memories. If a house or tree or business that has always "been there" is erased & replaced it does indeed trigger sadness & loss & reminiscing in those of us left behind. I do suppose age brings much of this on-when I was younger I viewed these changes with excitement. I can recall my dad telling us "The Gap' was coming to town. We thought it was a good thing. As one gets older the changes in our city do indicate our younger lives are being erased forever. Unless you are lucky enough to have someone to call & relive it all with . That helps a little bit. I must be getting old as I do find myself talking about N.Y.C. & Queens and saying the word "relatively recently" =and getting odd stares in return. My "relatively recently" is measured in years & the tearing down and building up is a relatively recent thing -for me. For my parents , this has been going on forever. For my neighbors there is no fond memory of the Trylon-where many summer days were spent hiding from the summer heat since we did not have A.C. Tonight I had to ask my mom & dad what the name of the bakery on Continental was named..."P" something was all I could recall. Dad came to the rescue: "Peter Pan"... equally beautiful to J.D. and equally a loss in our lives and the community's fabric.

A good 9 out of 10 of these people (like the Irish and Italians in Woodside and Howard Beach) have no respect for our culture or anybody not their own. They Can't even speak English correctly. Their ethnocentrism is only out done by their overt racism.

Was a really good diner that had the best open hot turkey and onion rings not far from this place.Was it Gerogia Diner still there ?

Also a good wing place in Maspeth with a back room we used to play darts (Irish name) Connors ?I have to go to Ridgewood this week, being that Coratos has gone to Mez-spicy reheated crap I would like to hit one of the 2 before those are gone as well.

Another place on Fresh Pond Road where we filmed "The Jerky Boys" It had little drunk figures and luck charms above the awning-Joe

Why should they have to keep art deco features on a Russian restaurant? You are just being biased, as usual. Art Deco features were associated with Western culture. That would be like saying a new Italian restaurant should have Buddha statues and Asian art.

Crapper, this blog is not a news journal. You typically provide your own commentary and reaction to others comments. If you choose to do so in some instances where you disagree, but do not choose to comment to criticize the bigotry or racism, you are effectively agreeing with the bigots. I'm not surprised, because I am guessing that you do agree with them and you don't have the courage to just admit it.

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